ASHTABULA —
As many as six people were the targets of a drug trafficking sting in Ashtabula this week, said Det. Greg Leonhard of the Trumbull-Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force (TAG).
Search warrants were conducted at 621 Lake Ave. and 5307 Adams Ave. on Wednesday and Thursday, Leonhard said, netting firearms, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, “and other items associated with drug trafficking,” including several growing marijuana plants at the Adams Avenue address.
“Right now a male and female will be charged with trafficking heroin and other related offenses,” Leonhard said, “and as our investigation continues, we expect several other people to be charged as well.”
The names of the suspects were not released pending formal charges and court arraignment, he said.
Leonhard said officers also arrested Jean Carlos R. “Randy” Gonzalez on a warrant during the search of the Adams Avenue house.
Gonzalez was wanted on a warrant through the Ashtabula Police Department for resisting arrest, Ashtabula Municipal Court records show.
“We only made one physical arrest, but expect charges from the ongoing investigation to include probably six people,” Leonhard said. “These people are suspected of buying and selling (drugs) from the residences in the raid.”
Officers also discovered several marijuana plants growing at the Adams Avenue home. The plants were seized, Leonhard said, but must be dried in the Ashtabula Police Department’s evidence room and then sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) for testing.
“The plants must be dried so the drugs can be weighed,” Leonhard said, “The significance of the crime depends on the weight of the drugs.”
Leonhard said while “less than five” marijuana plants were found, some had been pulled or harvested before the raid.
Leonhard also noted that the nine-moth investigation was spurred by citizen complaints about the residences.
Leonhard said the investigation was not associated with recent efforts by local law enforcement agencies against the manufacture, sale and use of methamphetamine.
“This investigation is ongoing by TAG, in conjunction with the Ashtabula City Police Department, BCI, the sheriff’s department, and the Ashtabula Area Regional SWAT Team,” he said. “This is something we do every day.”
Leonhard said while the county’s “Operation Meth Death,” in which 67 warrants were served across the county two weeks ago was “absolutely necessary and completely successful,” he also said heroin and opiate sale and use is prevalent in Ashtabula County.
“I am certainly not downplaying the meth epidemic in Ashtabula County,” he said, “but in the last year there have been 20 deaths in the county due to heroin overdoses and no deaths from meth overdoses. More people are dying because of heroin.”
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